I Ranked Dubai Villa Communities by Gross Rental Yield Using Live DLD Data
I run DubaiPropertyScore and just extended our gross rental yield model to cover villas — it was apartment-only before. Here's what stood out once the numbers came in.
How the Yield Is Calculated
For every villa listed for sale, we match it to the median annual rent from actual DLD rental contracts (last 3–6 months) in the same cluster/building and size bucket, then divide by the asking price.
Formula: Gross Yield = Median Annual Rent ÷ Sale Price × 100
This is asking-price yield, not closed-deal yield — treat it as a screening tool, not gospel.
Pulled from ~12,300 active for-sale villa listings; the tables below cover around 2,640 that had a confident match (≥5 comparable rental contracts).
Communities by Median Gross Yield
Minimum 3 listings per community to appear below.
| Community | Listings | Median Yield | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rukan | 18 | 5.8% | 4.9–6.9% |
| International City (villas) | 12 | 5.6% | 5.2–6.3% |
| Al Barari | 20 | 5.5% | 4.5–6.6% |
| DAMAC Hills 2 (Akoya) | 171 | 5.3% | 3.9–7.0% |
| Jumeirah Golf Estates | 26 | 5.1% | 4.4–6.3% |
| Mudon | 93 | 5.1% | 4.0–5.9% |
| DAMAC Hills | 48 | 5.0% | 4.0–7.8% |
| DAMAC Lagoons | 75 | 5.0% | 4.0–6.1% |
| Tilal Al Ghaf | 129 | 4.9% | 4.1–7.4% |
| Villanova | 84 | 4.8% | 4.0–5.5% |
| MBR City | 85 | 4.7% | 3.9–8.0% |
| Reem | 76 | 4.7% | 3.9–5.3% |
| The Valley | 72 | 4.6% | 4.0–5.5% |
| Al Furjan | 113 | 4.5% | 4.0–6.6% |
| Arabian Ranches 3 | 233 | 4.4% | 3.9–5.4% |
| Dubai Hills Estate | 142 | 4.3% | 3.9–7.0% |
| Dubai South | 125 | 4.3% | 3.9–5.1% |
One caveat on Rukan: a chunk of its listings are compact/plot-style villas under 800 sqft, which skews the median up vs. what most people picture as a "villa." International City villas are a similar story — small, older stock. Worth knowing before you get excited about the top two rows.
Highest-Yield Individual Listings Right Now
| Community / Cluster | Beds | Size | Price | Gross Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MBR City | 5BR | 8,588 sqft | AED 15.55M | 8.0% |
| DAMAC Hills — Rochester | 3BR | 2,818 sqft | AED 3.85M | 7.8% |
| MBR City — District One Villas | 4BR | 3,592 sqft | AED 9.1M | 7.5% |
| Tilal Al Ghaf — Harmony 3 | 5BR | 4,650 sqft | AED 10.3M | 7.4% |
| DAMAC Hills — BelAir (Trump Estates) | 4BR | 2,652 sqft | AED 3.8M | 7.0% |
| Dubai Hills Estate — Sidra 2 | 5BR | 3,750 sqft | AED 11.25M | 7.0% |
| Al Furjan — Tilal Al Furjan | 4BR | 3,956 sqft | AED 5.5M | 6.5% |
| Meydan — Millennium Estates | 5BR | 7,508 sqft | AED 13M | 6.5% |
Full live-updating list, filterable by beds, size, and community:
Browse all villa listings by yield →
General Takeaways
- Apartments still out-yield villas overall. Villa yields here top out around 7–8%, where JVC apartment clusters could hit 9–11%. Villas are more of a capital-appreciation / lifestyle play than a pure cash-flow play in this market — don't buy a villa expecting apartment-level yield.
- Mid-market communities beat luxury ones on yield, consistently. DAMAC Hills 2, Mudon, DAMAC Lagoons, and Tilal Al Ghaf all outperform Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Hills, and Arabian Ranches on a straight yield basis — the luxury premium on purchase price isn't matched by a proportional rent premium.
- This is a screening list, not a buy signal. Asking price ≠ closing price, and a thin comp count (single digits) means the "median" is really just 3–5 data points — check the actual rental comps for any specific listing before trusting the number.